50 minutes late, but still...50 minutes late.

Profile: Akiko Kunii
By Marni Newell
On a Monday evening, during the a reading of a new book of short stories by Kalamazoo College English professor Andy Mozina, Akiko Kunii enters the dark lecture hall and fumbles to find a seat in the back. She succeeds, but not without a few backward glances at her entrance.
“I came at the end because I was busy,” she explains. Busy only begins to describe it: Kunii is both a teaching fellow and a full time student at Kalamazoo College. She’s currently teaching Japanese 203 and taking Anthropology, Teaching Foreign Language, and Mind Body. She doesn’t belong to many campus groups, but is learning to dance for World Night. “I’m terrible, but I like it.”
As for free time, Kunii draws a blank. “When do I have spare time? Sleeping?” To understand better, she asks for a definition of ‘spare time’ and then reconsiders. “You can see me in the library or office, any other place I’m just running,” she pauses shortly. “Yeah, running.”
Kunii likes to get a ten to fifteen minute run in everyday, something she hasn’t done since she broke her arm running in the winter. “I hit the ground and it was terrible.” Her Japanese students were sympathetic and caring, though, sending her a “Get Well Soon” card written in Japanese and animal crackers. She appreciated the card, but liked it more because it was in Japanese, “I’m so happy and lucky to have nice students.”
Kunii knows Andy Mozina through a workshop they took together. “I keep asking him questions,” she says motioning to her right where he had sat in relation to her at the workshop. “And he would write it down to me the definition and the word and he read it to me.” To Kunii, that’s the most effective way for understanding English.
“People think international students don’t understand because we don’t know English. But I understand concepts.” Kunii reaches for my pen and slides the pad of paper near her to draw a fraction on the corner of the page. “You call this a fourth, right?” she points to the four with the pen. “In Japanese, we say the bottom number first.”
Kunii came to Kalamazoo College through a program offered in Japan that sends students all over the United States. She attended Northeastern College in Chicago before coming to Kalamazoo. Northeastern is “Very different. Much, much bigger.” When she has questions, Kunii attends office hours of professors, something more widely available at Kalamazoo than Northeastern.
When office hours aren’t available, Kunii uses the students at Kalamazoo. “I met her once at a women’s awareness group,” Senior Amel Omari says. “I had to explain to her what ‘bitch’ meant.” Omari smiles saying, “Now she says ‘Hi’ to me when she sees me.”
Manners are important to Kunii, who thinks one of the negative aspects of Kalamazoo College is how busy everyone is. “I can only say ‘Hi, how are you?’ when I see people when I’m running. In Japan, when we see people we—” she bends down to pantomime a bow. When Kunii is running and can’t bow she thinks she’s being rude.
Between preparing to teach classes and homework for classes she’s taking, Kunii tries to see the bright side of being busy. “[It’s a] good busy…because I can see so many things and participate. But it’s difficult because I have to choose.”